A five-year-old girl who plunged 65ft from a rooftop was either thrown or pushed to her death by her father, moments before he committed suicide, an has inquest heard.

Wolverhampton coroner Richard Allen said he was satisfied that Noel White had killed his daughter Shanice before hurling himself from an 11-storey car park last July.

After the hearing, in which Mr Allen recorded a verdict of unlawful killing and suicide, police said they were unable to discover any reason why the devoted father took his secret to the grave.

In court, Mr Allen said that evidence Shanice was travelling horizontally from the building at 62mph showed the fall was not accidental.

The 3ft 7in schoolgirl died of massive injuries after landing on her head at the foot of the Beatties car park in Skinner Street, Wolverhampton.

A police expert told the hearing that Shanice and her father, a 39-year-old labourer, passed over a 4ft 6in-high wall on the roof of car park.

Sergeant Ralph Howarth told the coroner that Shanice and Mr White were both found in the roadway after the incident on the evening of July 14.

Several witnesses described how they saw Mr White carrying his daughter on his shoulders prior to the tragedy and that he appeared normal and she appeared to be happy.

Shanice's mother and Mr White's partner of eight years, Claire Beardsmore, told the court that she could think of no reason why he would have wanted to kill himself.

Miss Beardsmore, of Snowdon Way, Oxley, Wolverhampton, disclosed that the couple had booked a holiday, and had even arranged a hire car, prior to the incident.

"He was bubbly on the outside, but he wouldn't show anybody how he was really feeling," she said.

Detective Constable Keith Langdon, who conducted inquiries into Mr White's personal life, was also mystified by his decision to kill his daughter.

Tests showed that he had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death and inquiries found no evidence that he had money, relationship or health problems.

Recording his verdicts, Mr Allen concluded: "Nobody seems to have been able to establish why this tragedy took place. Certainly, no compelling reason is apparent to me from the evidence that I have heard.

"What I have been told is that in the period leading up to July 14, Noel White was more withdrawn that usual and quieter than usual.

"I can only infer from that that something I have not been told about was bothering him.

It must have been something quite important for him to take the view that he intended to kill himself and in so doing to take his five-year-old daughter - to whom he was devoted - with him."

Speaking after the hearing at Wolverhampton Magistrates' Court, Det Chf Insp Tony Styles, of West Midlands Police, said the inquiry had been traumatic for the officers involved.

He added: "Today has concluded what has been a very difficult inquiry for the family of both Noel and Shanice White. I am somewhat disappointed that we were never able to come up with a conclusion as to why Noel killed his daughter and committed suicide thereafter.

"Noel was a very private individual. He was a devoted father and a very proud man. Whatever reason he may have had, I am afraid he took it with him."